The last San Diego location of once-thriving Urge Gastropub bar & restaurant concept has shuttered in North County after 14 years in business.
The Urge Gastropub brand was originally founded by brothers Zak and Nate Higson, along with business partner Grant Tondro, under the company 3 Local Brothers (3LB) Restaurants. The group was founded in 2007 with the opening of its first restaurant The Barrel Room, followed by Urge American Gastropub in 2010 and Brothers Provisions in 2012, all located in San Diego's North County community of Rancho Bernardo, CA.
In 2015, 3LB opened Urge Gastropub and Whiskey Bank in Oceanside, which also housed its craft brewery Mason Ale Works. In 2017, the team opened Urge Gastropub & Common House - a 21,000 square-foot gigantic dining, drinking and gaming destination in San Marcos, but that space was taken over by Cohn Restaurant Group in summer 2021 and became Draft Republic Brewing Company. In 2018, 3LB brought its second location of The Barrel Room Restaurant and the company's first standalone Mason Ale Works tasting room to San Diego's Carmel Valley, but those locations also closed recently.
In 2021, Urge Gastropub parent company 3LB "partnered" with Tableside Partners, the hospitality division of Newport-based "strategic business consulting group" West Coast Ventures & Resources. Founded by Randy Teffeteller in 2006, West Coast Ventures has its hands in a multitude of business sectors, ranging from waste management and pest control, to seafood distribution and grease bins, to environmental services and restaurants, among others. All of 3LB's San Diego businesses have closed since being taken over by Tableside Partners/West Coast Ventures. An Urge Gastropub remains in business in Scottsdale, AZ.
Last Fall, like 3LB, San Diego's seven-year old Eppig Brewing gave a up operational control of their brewery and satellite tasting rooms when it entered into a "strategic partnership" with West Coast Ventures & Resources. When West Coast Ventures took over Eppig Brewing last year, the company quickly shuttered its La Jolla Village tasting room and then announced the closure of the tasting room at their Vista brewery headquarters. Although two Eppig tasting rooms have closed, there is a new location in the works for the space that previously housed a Stone Brewing bar & restaurant directly outside of Petco Park in San Diego's East Village.
West Coast Ventures & Resources has been previously accused of destroying one-time Southern California-based award winning seafood chain and craft brewery, TAPS Fish House & Brewery, which once had five locations before filing for bankruptcy last summer amidst a $30 million financial mess. TAPS Fish House founder Joe Manzella is currently suing Teffeteller, West Coast Ventures and Tableside Partners in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Arizona, with legal claims including Avoidance and Recovery of Fraudulent and Preferential Transfers, Avoidance and Recovery of Post-Petition Transfers, Breach of Fiduciary Duty, Gross Negligence and Mismanagement, Breach of Contract and Implied Covenant of Good Faith, and Unjust Enrichment, among others.
With the closure of Urge Gastropub, it appears 3LB has been sentenced to a similar fate as Taps Fish House & Brewery. Only time will tell if Eppig Brewing will survive its "strategic partnership" with West Coast Ventures & Resources.
